File this under crossovers we didn't have on our card: the team that spent four seasons making PBS's Reconnecting Roots — the heritage series that won two 2024 National Daytime Emmys, including Outstanding Writing Team — is making horror now. Nashville streamer Screamify has announced Ravenmocker, a new Micro Horror™ series directed by Gabe McCauley and produced by Soul Feather Studios, the production company McCauley founded nearly two decades ago.
If those names ring a bell: McCauley hosts and directs Reconnecting Roots, Joel McAfee is its series producer, and both were among the honored writers on that Emmy-winning team. The show ran four seasons, presented by South Carolina ETV and distributed by American Public Television. Gentle, literate, deeply American television. And now — a heart-stealing witch.
Ravenmocker is written by John White and set in 1971, when a carload of teenagers breaks down on a rural Tennessee backroad and crosses into the hunting ground of the Ravenmocker — the witch of Cherokee legend, drawn from Cherokee folklore and bound to the land by a Civil War love story that ended in blood. The story spans the 1860s and 1971, told in Screamify's signature Micro Horror™ format: 20 vertically-shot episodes, about two minutes each, every one ending on a cliffhanger.
"I'm excited about being able to tell a story that has historical relevancy and deals with actual myth — it has firm footing in actual lore, within Native American culture and within ours," McCauley said on the red carpet at the Micro Horrors™ premiere in Nashville. "We're going back to the '70s, and then back to the 1860s — we're getting across centuries."
That's the part worth sitting with. Horror has always been where serious storytellers go to say true things about history, grief, and the land we live on — and a two-minute vertical format just got handed a team with an Emmy for writing. If anyone still thinks mobile-first horror is a gimmick, this is the announcement that should make them look again.
Also worth logging: the series is executive produced by Laryssa Goodlad for Screamify and Oh Gosh Yeah Entertainment, LLC, and was developed by Screamify Originals under the supervision of Goodlad and consulting development producer John Vann. A woman at the top of the call sheet on the platform's boldest swing yet — we see it, and we like it.
Ravenmocker joins Autonomous, Game Night: Survive the Slasher, and Scary Mary on the Micro Horrors™ slate. It's coming soon to Screamify on iOS, Android, Apple TV, Roku, Fire TV, Android TV, and Samsung smart TVs (LG coming soon). No premiere date yet — but our calendars are ready.
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